Antecedents of employee engagement: an examination of the banking sector of Nigeria

Abstract

The meaning of employee engagement is ambiguous among both academic researchers and
practit
ioners. The term has been used differently
;
either a psycho
logical state
or a state of mind. This
research aims to study employee engagement antecedents wi
thin the Nigerian banking industry
with a
unique con
tribution of
identifying evolutionary
waves in th
e development of the concept. Drawing on
relevant literature, some basic employee engagement antecedents were selected and analysed using
a
correlational coefficient as well as
thematic content analysis
process. While much has been written on
the topic, li
ttle is known about the engagement of administrative workers in most of the
developing
countries
especially in the banking industry of Nigeria. This research fills this gap. Though a lot of
research on the antecedents of employee engagement has been carrie
d out with different findings,
there is considerable confusion about the meaning of employee engagement.
The thesis objectives include: (i)
To
study selected antecedents of
the
employee engagement concept
within the Nigeria banking sector
,
(ii)
To
study an
d analyse the overlaps between employee
engagement and other work attitude concepts (Job satisfaction, motivation, employee involvement,
employee commitment and organi
s
ation citizen
ship behaviour
with a view to provide more clarity on
the overlaps between
the concepts.
The study was conducted using a mixed methods sequential design involving quantitative
(questionnaires) and qualitative (
i
nterview exercise) collection of data. 800 employees were selected
as the sample population for the study.
Empirical fin
dings show a positive correlation between employee engagement and other work attitude
concept
s
(Job satisfaction, motivation, employee involvement, employee commitment and
organi
s
ation citizen behaviour) and define employee engagement as a cultural, multi
-
faceted concept
,
that is
,
a combination of different constructs put together to form a concept.
Additionally, this study
uncovered few other employee engagement antecedents
such as target setting, employee union,
economic situat
ions ,job security
within t
he Nigeria banking sector, however, further investigation is
recommended to clarify these results and explore the possibility of other variable
influences. Finally
,
the
knowledge gained from this thesis will be use
d by students who are interested in the to
pic of
employee engagement
, as well as in human resource management reviews
,
to address issues regarding
the
employee
engagement
Keyword: Employee engagement, Commitment, Motivation, organization citizenship
behaviour, Job satisfaction, employee involvement.